The Legislative Council of Papua and New Guinea was a legislative body in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

between 1951 and 1963. It was established by the ''Papua and New Guinea Act 1949'' of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, which provided for the combined administration of the

Territory of Papua The Territory of Papua comprised the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea from 1883 to 1975. In 1883, the Government of Queensland annexed this territory for the British Empire. The United Kingdom Government refused to ratify the a ...

and

Territory of New Guinea The Territory of New Guinea was an Australian-administered United Nations trust territory on the island of New Guinea from 1914 until 1975. In 1949, the Territory and the Territory of Papua were established in an administrative union by the na ...

under the United Nations trust territory system. It had the power to make Ordinances for the "peace, order and good government" of the territory, subject to the assent of the Australian-appointed

Administrator Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * N ...

. The Legislative Council initially consisted of 28 members and the Administrator: sixteen "official members" representing the Territorial administrator, three non-official elected members, three non-official members "representing the interests of the Christian missions in the Territory", three non-official native members, and three other non-official members. As a result, it was considered to be largely dominated by the Australian administration. The first elections were held in 1951, with the first council sittings beginning in November 1951. In the first elections, there were only 664 people on the electoral roll in Papua, 537 on the New Guinea mainland and 496 in the New Guinea islands, with "not much more than half of those enrolled" voting. The Australian administration surrendered its majority in reforms in 1960 following international pressure for decolonisation, which increased membership to 37: 14 nominated officials, 12 elected members and 10 non-elected members, at least five of which were required to be indigenous. It was abolished in May 1963 and replaced by the

House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea The House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea was the legislature of the territory of Papua and New Guinea from 1964 to 1972. Before 1964, the Legislative Council of Papua and New Guinea sat from 1951 to 1964 under the Papua and New Guinea Act 19 ...

(with effect from 1964) following a

United Nations Trusteeship Council The United Nations Trusteeship Council (french: links=no, Conseil de tutelle des Nations unies) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, established to help ensure that trust territories were administered in the best interests ...

report that had recommended the establishment of a parliament in the territory.

References

Notes Citations {{Reflist, 30em Politics of Papua and New Guinea 1949 establishments in Papua New Guinea 1963 disestablishments in Papua New Guinea